Thomas Babington Macaulay
historical figure · 2 works · 9 mentions · 18 anchored passages
Macaulay · the Whig critic
in the texts
Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England
Whig statesman and historian whose views on the limited scope of government are presented as broadly aligned with mid-Victorian laissez-faire opinion.
Macaulay laid down no rigid rule limiting the sphere of State intervention, but he clearly held that, as a matter of common sense, government had better in general undertake little else than strictly political duties.
In regard to interference by law with the liberty of individual citizens, it is probable that a Benthamite Radical, such as John Mill conceived himself to be, differed little from a Whig, such as Macaulay, who certainly did not consciously subscribe to the Benthamite creed, and it is probable that the late Lord Salisbury (then Lord Robert Cecil) would not on this Edition:
Add to this, that between 1800 and 1832 a younger body of writers, such as Macaulay (1800-1859), John Mill (1806-1873), Arnold of Rugby (1795-1842), J.
The Genius of the Common Law
Statesman and legal draftsman credited as the principal author of the Indian Penal Code, later widely copied throughout British territories.
It is curious to read that after Macaulay’s death in 1859 Harriet Martineau, a person of universal information who was often ill-informed, pronounced his draft a complete failure.
Macaulay’s lament over Fearne’s devotion of a lifetime to ‘the barbarous puzzle of contingent remainders’ was better justified.